Staff Spotlight: Meet Sam Weiss, LCSW

Although Sam Weiss may be one of Roots Through Recovery’s newest Licensed Clinical Social Workers, she’s no rookie when it comes to working with the recovery community. Now that she’s completed the licensing process, Weiss can spend her days focusing on her professional passions of handling the initial assessments when new clients come in as well as her individual and group therapy sessions. With big dreams of one day opening up her own practice in order to help as many people as she can within the community, Weiss is keen to continue learning as much as possible in the coming years while staying true to her life’s mission of lending a helping hand to anyone who needs it.

What was it like to complete the process to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker?
I just got licensed in October, and it was a 3-year long process, so it was very rewarding to finally be able to go and take the licensure test and pass the first time. It’s allowed me to work under my own license and have the opportunity to do more of my own things to help the clients.

What made you want to get into the field of social work within the recovery community?
My first introduction into the recovery community was not actually my choice. I was assigned to work in a mental health hospital and was placed in the dual diagnosis unit during my first internship experience while in undergrad. I worked there before I even knew I wanted to pursue social work. I really liked working with the population just because of the challenge and stigma attached to the population and how underserved they are. I eventually chose social work because of the breadth of the career. You can work one-on-one with people, but if I eventually decided that I wanted to work on an organizational or macro level, that’s something that I’d also be able to do. I like having that flexibility. Working in recovery is extremely rewarding, and I’m glad I was initially introduced to the recovery community early on in my schooling because I’ve fallen in love with the population.

How is Roots Through Recovery different than the other facilities you’ve worked at?
I love Roots. The facility where I was before looked at clients and staff as a number, so it was very hard to be able to do what I wanted with the clients because I had such an overloaded case load. Here at Roots, you can really tell how much they care about their clients and staff. It creates a really secure environment, and the feedback that we get from clients all the time is how safe they feel here. That’s something I really value in a job; to have clients feel like we care about them and not just because they’re paying for it. The knowledge that the staff has when it comes to individualizing the clients’ treatment plans and meeting the client where they are at is part of what sets Roots Through Recovery apart from other treatment facilities.

What kinds of changes have you seen in the industry since you began working with recovery facilities?
The thing that I think has changed the most is the growing acceptance of addiction as a mental health disorder and not just as a behavioral problem. It’s really opened up the doors for people with addiction problems to get the help that they need, because it’s so common for them to have a co-occurring mental health problem. The more knowledge that people have that it’s not just a behavioral problem but an underlying mental health issue can change the way that people look at addiction, which I think is really awesome.

How do you spend your free time when you’re not working?
I’m a big sports fan, and I think a lot of people know that. I’ll spend a lot of my free time watching sports, because I’m not very good at playing sports. It’s unfortunate because if I was, that’d probably be something I would want to do. Other than that, I love going to the beach, going to the movies, spending time with friends, playing video games, stuff like that.